What peace with the Palestinians requires

Palestinians have been firing dozens of rockets from Gaza into southern Israel recently, hitting cities and civilians ("Palestinians to seek elevated status in U.N.," Nov. 13).

Yet not much attention has been given to the fact that Israeli families who have been living in constant fear of terror attacks and rockets from Gaza are now hunkering down in their bomb shelters.

The media and the international community seemed to ignore the constant rocket attacks on civilians by Hamas, a terrorist organization that receives money and weapons from Iran.

Israel pulled out of Gaza and evacuated its settlements in 2002, with the hope that Palestinians would start a new life, build schools, hospitals and communities and create jobs.

Unfortunately, as they have in the past, the Palestinians missed another opportunity to improve the quality of their lives. Hamas has failed to build sustainable communities; instead it has imposed only misery, hardship and human rights abuses on its people while continuing to invest in terrorism, propaganda and hatred toward Israel and the Jews.

Peace will not be achievable if the Palestinians refuse to recognize Israel. They must accept a two-state solution, agree to end the conflict, denounce violence and remove the anti-Semitic messages from their school text books. Nor is peace achievable if the international community fails to hold terror organizations like Hamas and their radical jihadist ideology accountable.